With last week's ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating Final in Baselga di Piné, Italy, under their belt, the junior international speed skating prodigies are ready for their season's climax at the ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships at the same track this week. The Netherland's are favorite for all ladies' events, but they face tough Italian and Asian competition. In the men's events Norway and Russia are likely to take home the medal haul.

One year on from having the world’s attention thrust upon her at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Maame Biney (USA) is mightily relieved to just be one of a number of highly talented young Short Track Speed Skaters attempting to break into the upper echelons of the sport.

Mexico for sure is not a figure skating hotspot. However, there is a young skater from Mexico, who quickly becomes a crowd favorite wherever he shows up. Most recently at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Anaheim (USA), Donovan Carrillo once more was very popular with the fans and someone even threw him giant sombrero on the ice.

World Champion Nathan Chen (USA), 19, loves jumping and is known as the new “quad king” as he became the first skater to perform five quadruple jumps in one program, but he has proven that his skating is more than just jumps. The three-time U.S. Champion has developed his performance skills and his two new programs this season showcase this very well.

The Germans are coming. That is the message coming quietly but confidently from team leader Anna Seidel and new national coach Stuart Horsepool as the penultimate ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup of the 2018/19 season got underway in Dresden, Germany.

Coming off a 10-month break from training and competing, Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) upset the favorites to dance off with the gold medal at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2019 in Anaheim (USA) on Sunday. Canada’s Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje, who had sat out the Grand Prix series as well, earned the silver medal while fellow Canadians Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier pulled up from fourth to take the bronze.

Russia’s 5000m men’s relay team powered to victory and denied the all-conquering Koreans a fifth successive gold medal as the Short Track speed skating World Cup season ended in Torino, Italy on Sunday.

Thomas Krol (NED) won his career first World Single Distances Championships gold with an impressive track record in the 1500m in Inzell on Sunday, before Joey Mantia (USA) brought four days of thrilling competition to a close by retaining his Mass Start title with a spectacular display of wit and power in the final stages.

On an emotion-fuelled final day of the ISU World Single Distances Championships, Ireen Wüst (NED) won the 1500m in a track record time and tearfully dedicated her title to her friend and former World Allround champion Paulien van Deutekom, who died in January. Wüst's compatriot Irene Schouten won her career second world title in the Mass Start.